The King’s Horses

Sham S. Misri

Once there was a king who could count only up to nine.

The king loved horses. But, he could never count all of them. He kept them in such a way that he needed to count only up to nine from each side.          

                       

3	3	3
3		3
3	3	3

How many horses did the king have?

                        Answer: 24.

One day a visitor with four horses came there. It was getting dark so he wanted to stay there at night. But the horse keeper was scared. If the king saw these extra horses he would be very angry!

The visitor said, “Don’t worry, the king will never know.”

So he arranged the horses like this:

2	5	2
5		5
2	5	2

How many horses are there now?

                        Answer: 28

At night the king came to count the horses.

Along each side he counted nine horses.

“Ah! That is fine,” he said.

Then, he happily went to sleep.

In the morning the clever visitor hurriedly tried another trick.

He took out his own four horses. But he ran away with some of the king’s horses standing in this way.

4	1	4
1		1
4	1	4

When the silly king came next time to count his horses, he did not find any horse missing.

How many horses are left now?  Nineteen.

How many of the king’s horses were taken away? Five.

                                                Sham S. Misri

                                                11.05.2010

                                                United Kingdom.